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It’s that time of year when we are never endingly reminded about temptations – Jesus’, not ours! After all, we are goody-goody church goers. We haven’t defrauded a bank, murdered somebody in a communal riot, and haven’t had the guts to covet the neighbour’s spouse! So why bother about temptations? After all, Lent is about…

The Gospel reading was from Mathew chapter 13, on the sower and the seed. The occasion was the Episcopal Silver Jubilee of Abp Albert D’souza (72) of Agra. It was being celebrated on 28th January at St Peter’s College, Agra. Drawing from the Gospel Bp Ignatius Menezes, emeritus of Ajmer diocese, said that in the…

My heart swelled with pride, and my tears welled up with joy. I was watching the 69th Republic Day Parade (RPD) on TV. I try to watch it every year. The only time I saw it live was in 1958 when my father was invited by the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen Thimayya. This…

The 1st of December was a cold morning, with temperatures the previous night plummeting to 6’C, heralding the onset of winter in Kanpur, where I live. But what really sent a chill down my spine was the election results of the U.P. civic polls to 16 Municipal Corporations (Nagar Nigams), 198 Nagar Palikas (Municipalities) and…

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) invited Sri Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India, for its annual Christmas celebration held at the Community Centre near the Sacred Heart Cathedral, New Delhi, on the 12th December. It was hosted by Bp Theodore Mascarenhas, Secretary General of the CBCI. Among the red-sashed ambassadors for Christ (the…

Urban U.P. is battling for political supremacy. We will soon know who are the Mayors of the various Municipal Corporations. In the midst of this slugfest have any of the mayoral candidates actually thought of what they are getting in to? Sometime ago I attended a meeting at the Circuit House, Kanpur, convened by the…

“Goodbye Mr Chips” is the story of Mr Chipping, the Latin teacher of Brookfields High School in America. He was affectionately called “Mr Chips”. During World War I the German teacher Max returned to his fatherland Germany, to fight for his country. Chips was saddened by the “waste of young lives in a pointless war”,…

Dan Brown’s fictional work, “The Da Vinci Code” has sold millions of copies worldwide. The movie is now due for release. Wonder how much money Brown made out of the book, and how much more he will get out of the movie? The adage that a half-truth is more dangerous than a lie holds good…

(A sequel to “Dil ka Dard”) “Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai?” is a 1980’s Hindi movie starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil and Om Puri. It received the Filmfare Critics’ award for the Best movie in 1981. It is about the angst of a young car mechanic who initially felt that undisciplined…

Those who don’t learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat the same mistakes. I see a striking resemblance in the behaviour and attitude of some of our current crop of leaders, with those of the past. Hence my apprehension that they may be falling in to the same trap, or making the same…